The sad aspect that the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk offers in its scrapping process

@DefAviation ES 6·17·2023 · 6:07 0

On May 21, 1960, the USS Kitty Hawk CV-63, the first aircraft carrier of its class, consisting of four ships, was launched in New Jersey.

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The USS Kitty Hawk entered service on April 29, 1961 and was in service for 48 years, being withdrawn from service on May 12, 2009. Being conventionally propelled ships, the four carriers of the class could have been turned into museums, something that will not be possible with the carriers of the Nimitz class, due to the costly maintenance involved in the two nuclear reactors carried by those carriers. There were attempts by veterans of the USS Kitty Hawk to convert it into a museum, but in the end they did not achieve that goal.

In October 2017, the US Navy announced that the aircraft carrier would be scrapped. On January 15, 2022, the USS Kitty Hawk began her final voyage to Brownsville, Texas, along the Mexican border , to be scrapped. She arrived at her destination on May 31 of that year. The scrapping process has already started. Three weeks ago, Michael Farrell posted a video showing the current sad state of the ship:

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Lead photo: U.S. navy. The USS Kitty Hawk with its flight deck packed with Super Hornet fighters, in a photo taken on August 6, 2008.